


Copper

by Yourwritersblock



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, First Kiss, I have no medical knowledge so this is probably all wrong, Love Confessions, M/M, Major Injury, Open ended, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 01:42:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yourwritersblock/pseuds/Yourwritersblock
Summary: Visceral fear clenched at Keith’s heart, sending hot blood to pound in his ears. “Lance?” He repeated, “Lance! Stay awake for me, okay? Can you do that?” Lance nodded sluggishly and pried his eyes open again. Keith removed his hands from Lance’s face to tear his helmet from his head. He shook it violently before slamming his thumb down on the coms. “Shiro!” he yelled. “Shiro, please respond, Lance is hurt!” Seedy static was his only response. He growled and threw his helmet to the ground, where it clattered against Lance’s.Lance is injured in battle and tells Keith how he feels before it's too late.





	Copper

**Author's Note:**

> Come send me more prompts at yourwritersblock on Tumblr~

Keith had heard people compare the smell of blood to the smell of copper. But he had never understood that. Blood was cloying, and rich, and hot, and so unique to itself that he had never been able to equate it to anything else. He realised now that he could thank his Galra senses for that; they enhanced the scent, giving it a stench that was so much more distinctive than any earth metal. And right now that sweet, acrid odour was all he could focus on.

Lance lay sprawled on his back, his blood thickening the dirt around him in an impossibly large pool. Keith tried to think back to his health and safety classes at the Garrison. How much blood did one need to lose before they bled out? Keith was pretty sure it was a third, but the wide splatter around Lance seemed like far more than that. It wasn’t difficult to see what had caused the damage. A large sword had been driven through Lance’s stomach, deep into the ground below him. Lance’s helmet had been thrown to the side. The magnitude of dead sentries scattered around Lance showed what a valiant fight he had put up; it just hadn’t been enough.

Keith’s movements seemed to fall into slow motion as he covered the short distance between them and collapsed onto his knees. His first instinct was to reach out for the other boy, but as his hands moved hesitantly towards Lance, he curled them back into his sternum. If he jostled Lance he would more than likely worsen the damage.

Lance dragged a shallow breath into his lungs, only for a hacking cough to shudder through his body. Blood pulsed from his nose and dripped out from between his pale lips, dark and thick. “Keith?” Disorientation clouded the red paladin’s eyes. Keith stared in horror as the syllable forced even more blood to spill over Lance’s chin. A broken rib must have punctured one of his lungs. Keith’s brain kicked into overdrive, trying to figure out what would kill Lance first – the sword through his body or the internal bleeding. Did it count towards blood loss if it was still in his body? Probably.

“Lance,” he breathed. His fingers had managed to find his teammate’s short hair, unbidden. Keith pushed the brown locks away from Lance’s sweaty forehead.  

The taller boy’s head rolled to the side. “S’nice,” he mumbled as his eyelid’s flickered closed.

Visceral fear clenched at Keith’s heart, sending hot blood to pound in his ears. “Lance?” He repeated, “Lance! Stay awake for me, okay? Can you do that?” Lance nodded sluggishly and pried his eyes open again. Keith removed his hands from Lance’s face to tear his helmet from his head. He shook it violently before slamming his thumb down on the coms. “Shiro!” he yelled. “Shiro, please respond, Lance is hurt!” Seedy static was his only response. He growled and threw his helmet to the ground, where it clattered against Lance’s.

“I need to tell you something.” Lance’s voice was suddenly clear and calm and the serenity of it dragged Keith back to him. He laughed lowly, and the action caused the blood to bubble in his mouth. One of the bubbles popped, and Keith watched in revulsion as it caused a small splatter of red to spray across his own armour. “I didn’t want to have to tell you like this, but I need you to kno-”

“No,” Keith bit out. “No talking. Save your strength. You can tell me whatever you need to say when you get out of the healing pod.”

“Please,” Lance said. His voice carried so much sadness, and so much finality, that Keith could only stare down at him. He hunched over Lance’s body so that their faces were just inches apart.

“Tell me later,” he begged.

Lance forced another shallow breath into his chest. Without warning he surged up, smashing his lips against Keith’s. Keith’s could taste the metallic sting of the viscous liquid against his mouth, and his nose filled with the heady stench of blood. But he hardly noticed. Because Lance was kissing him. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before Lance no longer had the strength to keep himself up and crumpled back onto the ground with a hollow thud. But those seconds had been more than enough for Keith to understand. Lance voiced it anyway: “I love you.”

Keith froze. A million thoughts ran through his brain in unfinished snippets. Nobody had ever actually told Keith they loved him. Sure, Shiro had often told him how ‘important’ he was and how much he ‘cared’ for the younger man, but ‘love’ had never been a word extended to Keith. And it had come from  _Lance._ Beautiful, caring, intelligent Lance. Lance who was  _dying._  He tried to reach for something to say, but the words “Since when?” fell from his bloodied lips.

The red paladin’s lips curved up into a warm smile. “Second week at the Garrison.”

“What?” Keith responded intelligently. “But you hated me when we first got to space! You started that whole stupid rivalry thing!”

Lance’s smile fell and he jerked his shoulders up against the ground in a shrug. “I was hurt. I didn’t know how else to handle my feelings. I didn’t love you back then, but I definitely liked you, and to not even remember who I was…” He trailed off and the clarity in his eyes faded, his pupils glazing over. His hand twitched slightly.

“Lance?” Keith cried, fingers scrambling to find a pulse. They settled against one eventually. It was weak and uneven, but it was there, and that was enough for now. He no longer cared if he was making the injury worse. He pulled Lance’s head onto his lap, cradling his face and rocking back and forth. “Lance,” he whispered, “You’re going to be okay.” A cold tear slipped over his cheek and landed on Lance’s, diluting the blood there into a pale pink. “You have to be okay. You can’t just tell me you love me and then not give me the chance to say it back. I love you too, you jerk.” Lance didn’t respond.

Keith was about to scream his anger into the sky when Shiro’s voice broke through the air. “-eith? Lance? Can you guys hear me?” Keith grabbed his helmet, body twisting painfully so as not to jostle Lance.

“Shiro,” he yelled. His voice cracked in relief. “Shiro Lance is hurt. I need you to get here right now.”

Keith heard Hunk gasp over the line, but Shiro’s voice remained steady when he answered. “We’ll be right there. I’ll get a pod ready.”

Hunk released a barrage of questions regarding Lance’s state and how he had been hurt. Keith answered him robotically, listening to the other members of Team Voltron’s distress as the story unfolded. Pidge let out a sob as Keith asked if the pods could synthesize blood. The answer was a resounding no, but Hunk knew Lance’s blood type, which was the same as Pidge’s, and Shiro was a universal donor. So between the two of them they would probably have enough for a transfusion.  When the Yellow Lion finally showed up, Keith was still rocking Lance’s body back and forth.

The trip back to the ship passed in a blur. Keith wasn’t entirely sure how Shiro and Hunk had managed it, but somehow they had gotten the sword out of the ground without ripping it from Lance’s body. Keith had just watched in a daze as even more blood pulsed from the wound as Hunk gingerly carried him into Yellow. He had followed in a haze and curled himself into a ball in the cockpit as Shiro pulled a vial of adrenaline from somewhere and shot it into Lance’s veins. Somehow the ten minute flight back to the ship passed in both seconds and hours.  _I love you_ repeated in his head.  _I love you._

Shiro had noticed the blood caked onto Keith’s lips and had given him a speech on how trying to administer CPR without the proper training could do more harm than good. Keith didn’t hear any of it.

_I love you._


End file.
